A seminar on Hump Action was held in Hong Kong on August 17 as one of the activities commemorating the 60th anniversary of the victory of the war against Japanese aggression in Hong Kong.

Three war veterans who served in the American airforce and participated in the Hump Action during the second World War made speeches at the seminar.

The war heroes, who are all in their eighties, told Hong Kong's young people stories about their participation in the war.

A Chinese member of the US airforce's Flying Tiger, also a ferry pilot of the Hump Action, Leonard Lam said Chinese people should thank the US friends who had helped a lot in ferrying war materials to China during the war.

In May 1942, Japanese troops overran Burma (Myanmar) bordering India, cutting off the last significant land routes that supplied the struggling armies in China.

China and the United States then decided to transport war supplies by flights and there gave birth to the Hump route of 500 miles, involving the flying at an altitude between 4,500 and 5,500 meters over the Himalayas and the Hengduan mountains.

Lam was grateful that he received training by the US airforce which allowed him to fly up in the sky, to take part in the fight against the Japanese troops. He also reminded the young people that they should not forget this episode of tough history of China.

"It's Chinese people who saved our pilots in flight wrecks," Melvin McMullen, one of the war veterans, said that it has been 60 years after the war and one thing he must mention is the goodness and generosity of Chinese people.

As told by McMullen, hundreds of pilots of the US airforce had been saved by Chinese people. He said he was deeply moved by their braveness as they were not fear of the Japanese troops who would kill them if their act of saving US pilots' was discovered.

A student from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Law Nga Chi, who attended the seminar, said that it is a great chance to learn from the veterans about the history of World War II.

Law said that the stories told by the veterans inspired her to learn people's spirit of defending the country.

The seminar was jointly organized by Hong Kong's Education and Manpower Bureau, the Preparatory Committee of 60th Anniversary of the Victory of Resistance War Against Japanese Aggression and some other organizations.

Source: Xinhua